AG nominee Blanche told top Democrat he ‘made a mistake’ with $1.8B anti-weaponization fund 34%
By Benjamin S. Weiss44%
7/14/2026, 3:25:51 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 25 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Appeal to Emotion, and Recency Bias, with Biased Writer Voice as the most egregious example at 40.5% saturation with 361 hits. Analysis detected 2,006 faulty-reasoning hits from 892 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 42% and a BS Rank of 34% (14,508 of 21,887 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 66.30% of the article peer group.
WASHINGTON (CN) — Attorney general nominee Todd Blanche told Senator Dick Durbin that he “made a mistake” championing a billion-dollar “slush fund” for victims of so-called government weaponization, the top Senate Democrat said Tuesday afternoon.
The expression of remorse from President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department comes just a day before he’s expected to testify before Senate lawmakers in a hearing where he is sure to face sharp questions from both sides of the aisle over the controversial fund and his refusal to rescind the program in writing.
Durbin, the Democratic ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Courthouse News during a conference with reporters that he had asked Blanche about the defunct $1.8 billion weaponization fund during a one-on-one meeting with the nominee on Capitol Hill.
“[Blanche said] ‘what more can I do?
What more can I say?
I made a mistake.
I don’t want to see the weaponization fund go forward,’” the Illinois senator said.
Asked in a follow-up question whether he was quoting Blanche directly when he said the nominee admitted he’d made a mistake, Durbin signaled that he was.
The Justice Department in June rattled Congress when it announced that it would stand up a $1.776 billion fund aimed at paying out damages to people it said had been unfairly targeted by the U.S. government.
Lawmakers worried that the fund — the result of a settlement between Trump and the Internal Revenue Service — could be used to give monetary handouts to people who committed violent crimes during the Jan.
6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Amid backlash from some prominent Republicans, Blanche later said that the weaponization fund would not move forward.
But he resisted calls to make his declaration permanent by issuing a written order ending the program.
Durbin told Courthouse News that he’d again asked the attorney general nominee to formally rescind the fund but that Blanche had put the ball in Congress’ court.
“I said, why don’t you put it in writing?
Do something so it’s a credible statement by you,” he said.
“What he said is, if Congress wants to codify it, then I’ll work with them to codify the fact that it’s gone and it’s not going to be used again.
It seemed like a very weak defense.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Department did not immediately return a request for comment on Blanche’s conversation with Durbin.
Lawmakers, for their part, tried repeatedly over the summer to put a legislative stop to the moribund weaponization fund.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, both Republicans, attempted to work language related to the fund into the GOP’s marquee budget reconciliation measure, but lawmakers ultimately passed the spending package without any such guardrails.
Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have also introduced standalone bills aimed at slapping limits on the weaponization fund or future iterations — none so far have passed.
Durbin, meanwhile, told reporters on Tuesday that he’d also spoken with Blanche about a Florida federal judge’s move this week to shut down Trump’s settlement with the IRS, which stemmed from a lawsuit over the 2019 leak of his tax returns.
“He said he had nothing to do with the case, and he believes he was the victim of a hit job by this judge in Florida,” he said.
U.S.
District Court Judge Kathleen Williams wrote in her Monday ruling that the Trump administration, the Justice Department and other agencies engaged in “collusion” to ensure the president and his family could not be scrutinized over past tax returns and to stand up the weaponization fund.
Following the June settlement, Blanche issued a statement holding that the U.S. government could never again probe Trump, his family or his businesses for past tax information.
The Justice Department has framed the memo as standard practice for settlements.
Durbin said that Blanche insisted Tuesday that the memorandum wasn’t “prospective” and that it only covered past tax documents.
“That was his defense,” said the Illinois Democrat.
“That’s not much of a defense as far as our needs are — why would they be exempt from tax laws?”
The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to meet with Blanche on Wednesday morning.
He must survive tough questions from not only Democrats but also some skeptical Republicans on the panel, including Tillis and Texas Senator John Cornyn, who has said he will reserve judgment on the nominee until after his hearing.
After the death of South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who sat on the Judiciary Committee, Blanche’s nomination could deadlock in committee 11-11 if one Republican lawmaker chooses to defect.
Ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, the Trump administration has pushed hard on Senate Republicans to confirm his attorney general pick.
The president himself wrote in a post on Truth Social Tuesday that Blanche was doing a “phenomenal” job as acting attorney general, a post he’s held since April after former Attorney General Pam Bondi was fired.
“When the corrupt ‘Injustice’ Department and Radical Left Prosecutors tried to throw me in jail, and interfered in our Historic 2024 Presidential Campaign, Todd stood by my side and fought off the Lawfare,” Trump wrote.
“He is a great lawyer, always very fair, and every Republican Senator should vote to CONFIRM Todd Blanche ASAP!”
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